Oceania Cruises
 

Does anyone have any experience with this cruise line. Thinking of doing a panama canal trip on one of their vessels. Any comments would be appreciated. Thanks

I suggest you check out the Oceania forum on CruiseCritic.com and the Oceania forum on LuxuryCruiseTalk.com. Both forums have a lot written about Oceania. My perception of Oceania (as I have not yet sailed on them) is that they are known to have nice ships, very good food, great itineraries that are longer than most cruise lines, and expensive excursions. On the other hand, it depends on what other lines you are looking at and what is important to you. Oceania's pricing is attractive unless you want larger cabins (such as those standard on Regent and Silversea), in which case there is less of a difference.

Dreps,

Thank you for the links. I will take a look.

We did our first Oceania cruise last September and are booked on another for this September. The ship was very nice and the food in both the dining room and the specialty restaurants was fabulous. We went from Athens to Rome and the itinerary was terrific. The staff and crew very helpful and friendly and seemed to genuinely want everyone to enjoy everything about the cruise.
If we had to give a negative it would be the entertainment and the small, very quiet casino. We do enjoy the shows after dinner, so we did miss that aspect.
Hope this helps.

BarbK,

Thank you for your comments. What is the dress code onboard their vessels. We are looking to avoid any formal wear and prefer an upscale ship with a more casual atmosphere, where nice casual attire will be appropriate. Is this possible on Oceania? Thanks.

Oceania has no formal nights, just "country club casual".

We love the small size of the ships, the open seating dining, the free specialty restaurants, the wonderful staff.

Did our first Oceania cruise in 9/06 too. Istanbul to Venice. Great itinerary. Country club casual for dress which means normally long-sleeved, collared shirts for men at dinner and for women nice slacks (with pretty top) and/or skirt dress. Women would dress up more with jewelry.

Agree with Barb that the entertainment wasn't anything great - but it didn't matter to us as we were usually tired from the day in port and wanted to relax with wine on our verandah.

I would certainly take a cruise with this line again. We liked the smaller ship size. Decor was becautiful. A lot of pluses to us such as 1)primarily a non-smoking group as no smoking allowed except for a couple of outdoor spots; and 2) didn't object to you bringing on board your own wine for consumption in your stateroom.

Any questions, let me know

abram and patandhank,

Thank you very much for your comments. It sounds like Oceania would offer us everything we would want in a cruise. Our last cruise was on Celebrity and while we did enjoy it we weren't fond of having to drag along formal attire etc.

We like the idea of open seating rather than set times. Found that the early seatings were a little too early especially after daily excursions and consequently the late seating too late to be eating a big meal. A comfortable time for evening dining would be around 7:30 for us.

Also really like the more nonsmoking orientated atmosphere.

We sailed on the Insignia out of Buenos Aires around the Horn to Santiago on Jan 18 07. It was our first experience with this cruiseline and it was very enjoyable. I particularly enjoyed open seating and the Polo Grill had the best steaks I had ever (EVER!) eaten.

We had calm seas (for that area) and we didn't have any turbulent weather - could never tell we were on a "smaller" ship by the motion.

Another question this time about deck locations. Is there much if any difference between Deck 7 and Deck 8 on the Regatta in terms of one being better than the other?
We have a choice of either deck but able to book a center cabin in Concierge Class on Deck 8 (A1) or A2 and A3 on deck 7, which are a little more forward. I do have problems with motion sickness so wonder what would be best. Directly above Deck 8 cabin is the pool area.

I can't speak to the Regatta, we were on the Nautica. We were on Deck 7 - cabin 7009 - all the way forward. Only felt motion one night when we hit some heavy waves.

Oceania has a very active forum on www.cruisecritic.com - I've used it a lot. You might want to take a look at that site too.